The NCAA News - News and Features

The NCAA News -- January 18, 1999

Ohio team rallies around student-athlete's desire to help

BY KAY HAWES
STAFF WRITER

A lot of good can come from the idea of one student-athlete.

Mendi Thornton, a sophomore guard on the women's basketball team at Marietta College, had an idea. She saw an article in a newspaper about Hannah Cline, a 14-month-old girl who was battling cancer. Thornton wanted to do something to help.

"She came to me one day and brought the newspaper," said assistant basketball coach Dave Honhart. "There was an article in it about this little girl, and Thornton said, 'Coach, there has got to be something we can do to help. We're healthy, and we could do something.' "

Hannah was diagnosed in July with Mesoblastic Nephroma (a tumor of the kidney). After 10 weeks of chemotherapy, she had surgery to remove the tumor. Following her surgery, doctors discovered yet another type of cancer -- Neuroblastoma. Now little Hannah faces more than a year of aggressive chemotherapy sessions.

Thornton's teammates immediately wanted to do something -- anything -- they could to help. After kicking around some ideas, the team decided on a free-throw fund-raiser in November.

What a great idea it was. The Pioneers' shoot-a-thon raised more than $2,300 to help offset Hannah's medical bills. The team also became friends with the little girl and her family, and they learned that they could make a difference when they worked together.

"I am so proud of the players," said head coach Annamarie Wyant. "This was their idea. I did not tell them they had to do this. They wanted to do this, so I am extremely proud of how they followed through on this great cause."

The Marietta women's basketball team went into the community and asked people to make pledges. Interested community members could donate a flat sum or a sum relative to how many free throws the team made during a forty-minute period.

The Pioneers made 1,587 of 1,956 foul shots for an impressive 81.1 shooting percentage.

"Considering that we normally shoot in the mid-70s in practice, their hearts were really in it," said Honhart. "They did a good job."

Hannah, along with her parents, Roman and Tonya Cline of Vincent, Ohio, attended the fund-raiser in Ban Johnson Field House on the Marietta College campus.

Members of the community attended as well to show their support. "It was really amazing, the generosity of people in the community," Honhart said, noting that the team worked with the local media and the college's sports information department to help gather support for the event.

"Hannah came, and that really put a lot of meaning into it for everyone," Wyant said.

"It was a great moment," Thornton said of the fund-raiser. "Everyone was excited to do what they could to help out. It was also special to get an opportunity to meet Hannah."

Hannah's appearance at the fund-raiser made such an impression on the team that the players wanted to keep in touch with her and her parents.

"They've kind of adopted her," Wyant said. "Now, we get regular Hannah updates. She's losing her hair, so we're giving her some hats."

Hannah had to start another round of chemotherapy after the fund-raiser, and her parents were hoping she could be out of the hospital -- for a while at least -- and home by Christmas. If her health improves a bit after this round of chemotherapy, Hannah's parents would like her to see the Pioneers compete in a game situation.

"Her mom is hoping that her (blood) counts will come up so she can take her out in public and come to some of our games," Wyant said.

"It just seems so unfair," Wyant said of the little girl's illness. She's only 15 months old now. That's really little to have to go through all of this."

Anyone interested in helping Hannah Cline can still

do so by contacting

Honhart at 740/376-4586. Those wishing to send donations may make checks out to the Hannah Cline Trust Fund and send them to Honhart.